512 



HORTICULTURE 



October 9, 1909 



Seed Trade 



British Vegetable Trials. 



It may be of interest to readers of 

 HORTICULTURE to be informed of 

 some recent trials at the R. H. S. gar- 

 dens at Wisley, inspected by members 

 of the Fruit and Vegetable Committee. 

 These trials consisted of runner beans, 

 cauliflowers and late potatoes. Of run- 

 ner beans, the smooth-podded varieties 

 were first inspected, and from these 

 were selected Count Zepplin, of the 

 old case-knife form, stringless, 12 in. 

 in length, singularly tender, and deli- 

 cious eating when cooked (Heinemann, 

 Erfurt). Dark Dun, a selection of the 

 climbing French type, prolific with 

 short fleshy pods (.James Carter & Co.) 

 Climbing beans selected tender and 

 tnie form (.James Carter & Co.) Prin- 

 cess of Wales, a very fine heavy-crop- 

 ping bean (Sutton & Sons). Of the 

 Scarlet or Dutch runner type, Scarlet 

 Emperor has long pod of a deep green 

 color, and Red Giant with long narrow 

 pods, of a pale green color (James Car- 

 ter & Co.) Also Prizewinner certifi- 

 cated in 1S92. Mr. Beckett, gardener 

 at ."Vldenham House, Herts, had sent a 

 white flowering variety named White 

 Emperor, which was the heaviest crop- 

 per of all, with pods long and shapely. 

 All of these received three marks 

 apiece, and these awards were sanc- 

 tioned by the full committee on Tues- 

 day, September 14. 



A trial of cauliflowers was then in- 

 spected and most of the varieties which 

 had turned in showed fine heads. Early 

 Snowball, an old variety, was the earl- 

 iest—a good stock (Barr & Sons). Good 

 varieties for succession were King of 

 the Cauliflowers (Barr & Sons), Mag- 

 num Bonum (Sutton & Sons), Dwarf 

 Mammoth (Carter & Co.), and Con- 

 queror (Vilmorin et Cie, Paris). These 

 received three marks, and this was 

 tanctioned by the full committee. Of 

 the potatoes, seedlings from the va- 

 riety Up-to-Date were in the majority. 

 Those selected and shown to the full 

 committees were Duchess of York (W. 

 Holmes, Tain, N. B.), a long white 

 tuber; Vera O'Brien, a flat oval (Tul- 

 lins, Kildare) ; Widecorabe Intermedi- 

 ate,' a round tuber (Pickering, Ashbur- 

 ton); and Scottish Chief, a large flat- 

 tlsh round tuber (Barr & Sons). These 

 all received three marks. — Extracted 

 {rom Gardeners' Chronicle for Septem- 

 her IS. 



Contraband Tobacco. 

 Whence goes all the forfeited to- 

 Tjacco of the British Custom Houses is 

 a question asked and answered in "The 

 Daily Chronicle" (London), for Sep- 

 tember 23. "Smokers will be glad to 

 know that the contraband tobacco is 

 no longer consigned to what used to 

 be known as the 'Queen's Tobacco 

 Pipe'— the kiln by the London Docks. 

 It was an awful waste of incense. 

 Nowadays, if you are a criminal and a 

 lunatic, and are accommodated at 

 Broadmoor, you .get your tobacco from 

 the Customs for nothing. And any to- 

 bacco that is below your criminally 

 lunatic taste is used for the discourage- 

 ment of insects in Kew Gardens." 



F. M. 



The Grass Seed Market. 



We have just received from Baren- 

 brug. Burgers & Co. their annual re- 

 port on this year's crops of Natural 

 Grass Seeds in the various growing 

 districts at home and abroad. They 

 tell us that of the last three years, all 

 with decidedly short crops, the present 

 season beats the record for shortness 

 nf)t only of them, but of at least a 

 score of years, owing to the very un- 

 favorable weather which has been well- 

 nigh universal all over Europe. At 

 one time a continuous drought when 

 piactically every plot of grass land 

 seemed a barren place; after that a 

 period of cold wet weather, with the 

 result *hat whatever had fortunately 

 passed through the drought was con- 

 fronted by the opposite fate, viz., that 

 of being destroyed by water. 



The early varieties — those that had 

 to pass through and ripened during the 

 dry period — .showed consequently heads 

 with almost no seed in, whereas the 

 later varieties — those which had to go 

 through the cold and wet period — had 

 an exceedingly poor flowering time, 

 with the result that the seed-setting 

 was badly affected; so that the yields 

 on the whole are not one-third of what 

 they should be; and of both early and 

 late varieties, the quality of the prod- 

 uce of all is of aui exceedingly light 

 character, the carrying up of which to 

 a satisfactory standai-d of purity re- 

 quired a good deal of winnowing and 

 a big loss of light matter. They say 

 that if it has been surmised by seeds- 

 men that last season's quotations for 

 the majority of grasses were about the 

 highest that could reasonably be ex- 

 pected to find customers, they fear that 

 at least for a few varieties the trade 

 will be called upon to pay still more 

 this year, if as is presumed to be the 

 case, they can't do without them. For, 

 considering the exceedingly small 

 yields, this season's light qualities 

 which will show an enormous loss in 

 cleaning them up to a decent standard 

 of purity, and finally, the excessive 

 high prices paid to farmers for their 

 rough material, quotations cannot fail 

 to soar a good deal higher than last 

 season for those kinds which suf- 

 fered most from the inclemency of the 

 weather. 



Of the sorts which are likely to com- 

 mand advanced prices, they enumerate 

 Achillea millefolium. Agrostis stolonif- 

 era, Agrostis canina, Anthoxanthuni 

 odoratum, Avena elatior, Avena flaves- 

 cens, Cynosurus cristatus, Festuca du- 

 riuscula ovina, and ovina angustifolia 

 (these higher than ever before), Fes- 

 tuca elatior, F. pratensis, F. rubra, Poa 

 nemoralis and Poa pratensis. Alope- 

 curus pratensis is a satisfactory crop 

 and moderate prices are quoted, but 

 buyers are warned against old or mixed 

 seed as last year's seed was unsatis- 

 factory as to both purity and germina- 

 tion. Anihoxanthum odoratum patelli 

 will probably advance, Dactylis glo- 

 merata will be reasonable, as also will 

 be Poa trivialis and Lolium perenne 

 and Italicum. 



California in 1854, and from Califor- 

 nia it was taken to Utah, Colorado, 

 Kansas and further east. He adds: 



"Lucerne was introduced into tlie Eastern 

 States long before it came to California, 

 liut it made no headway and was forgotten 

 until it made its way eastward from the 

 great West." 



The latter statement is open to ques- 

 tion. We have been Informed that the 

 first lOOths of alfalfa for the state 

 of Texas went from Philadelphia in 

 JSSS and from there it spread all over 

 the central western and Pacific states. 

 Now Texas sends the seeds out in hun- 

 dreds of carloads, all over the United 

 States and to foreign countries; but in 

 this connection it is well to bear in 

 raind the words of a leading European 

 authority (I'arenbrug) on this subject: 



"Tiiere is an enormous difference be- 

 tween tile produce of European and Amer- 

 ican grown Alfalfa, so much so that even 

 in Holland it is considered a fraud if Amer- 

 ican grown is sold for European or if mix- 

 tures of the two are sold for European 

 seed. There is simply no comparing the 

 one plant with the other. Not only that — 

 the American plant's duration does not ex- 

 ceed two or three years at best so that it 

 does not answer to having a longer lay 

 than a Held of red clover and that it is by 

 far the inferior of the 5 or 6-year 

 plant of European origin, but the plant it- 

 self is rather a poor one iu comparison. 

 Even the fii-st cut does not yield more than 

 half the quantity, whereas the second cut 

 is even less. Among the European-grown 

 seeds, namely: — Provence, Middle, and 

 North of France. Italian, Hungarian and 

 Russian — we consider the Provence and 

 Italian seeds to be the best, next we would 

 prefer the north and middle of France and 

 Hungarian, while the Russian is in our 

 opinion no better than the American." 



The cultivation of Lucerne is older 

 than Rome — in fact, it is of unknown 

 antiquity. The Persians had it before 

 the Greeks or Romans. As a culti- 

 vated plant it is probably one of the 

 oldest known to the human race. Of 

 course. Professor Hodgensen is no 

 doubt correct in ascribing its introduc- 

 tion into South America and the Paci- 

 fic coast territories to the Spaniards. 

 But to imagine a West-to-East migra- 

 tion is too much, and clean contrary 

 to all probabilities. More likely it 

 simply followed the settlement of the 

 UiJted States from East to West. An- 

 other thing — what is there about Utah- 

 grown seed that such claims are set 

 up for it? We want to know, you 

 know, even if we are not "from Mis- 

 souri." 



The History of Alfalfa or Lucerne. 



In an account of the history and dis- 

 semination of Lucerne, Prof. J. C. Hodg- 

 enson is quoted as having said that 

 tlie plant was introduced from Rome 

 into Spain and Prance and thence to 

 South America and Mexico during the 

 Spanish invasion and from there to 



The Aster Seed Crop. 



Referring to the aster seed notes in 

 our issue of September 18, Mj. Charles 

 H. Vick of Rochester, N. Y.. writes us 

 as follows: 



"1 note, in a recent number of HOR- 

 TICULTURE, a short article on the 

 Aster Seed crop. While we have had 

 very unfavorable weather in the vicin- 

 ity of Rochester, we expect a fair crop, 

 with sufficient seed to fill all orders. 

 The early season was unfavorable on 

 account of the wet. Alter our plants 

 were set out, the drought interfered 

 with the growth. The recent showers 

 have helped some and our asters at 

 present are in full bloom and. with a 

 favorable fall, we will harvest nearly 

 the usual quantity of seed. 



"Two new Extra Early Uprights, 

 Pink and White, will be added to our 

 list, and also a new one identical in 

 the growth and style of flower to our 

 Violet King, a very beautiful rose iu 

 color. These we shall offer to the 

 trade in packets." 



